Every design for Harlingen

Down at the harbour in Harlingen, a fleet of historic shallow-draught sailing ships lies moored near the ferries that leave for Vlieland and Terschelling. The town sits on a tip of the Frisian coast that pushes out into the Wadden Sea, beside natural channels through the shallows, and it has kept its maritime character for as long as anyone can tell.

Gemeentemuseum Het Hannemahuis stands in a centre that is protected as a whole, full of listed buildings. Its history is one of fishing and shipping. The town was first recorded as Herlinge, lost most of its houses to a fire in the fifteenth century, and was fortified after Albert III, Duke of Saxony, landed here and founded a castle. Mennonite refugees fleeing persecution in the Eighty Years' War arrived in such numbers that the town had to expand, swallowing the village of Almenum. When the old walls came down, two round towers on the waterfront were spared. Later the Admiralty of Friesland moved here, and the southern harbour became a naval base.

Come back along the coast, see the harbour masts and the Stienen Man again, and you know you belong here.